


Abandoned No More (Doing It For Ourselves Remix)

by Isilfic (Isilweth)



Category: Birds of Prey (Comic), DCU - Comicverse, Teen Titans (comic)
Genre: Bechdel Test Pass, Cross-Posted on LiveJournal, Gen, Superheroes, Villains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-16
Updated: 2010-05-16
Packaged: 2017-10-09 11:37:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/86879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isilweth/pseuds/Isilfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose thinks she has to go it alone. She's wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Abandoned No More (Doing It For Ourselves Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zarabithia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/gifts).
  * Inspired by [We Will Be Villains, Then](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/753) by Pervyficgirl. 



> Thank you to [literaryll](http://literaryll.livejournal.com) for the beta!

Rose camped down deeper into her burrow in the snowbank. She'd been here for several hours now and was getting tired of waiting. Cass had gone for supplies less than twenty minutes ago and sitting here in the cold by herself was getting old fast. Rose knew she was impatient, but she wasn't that impatient.

Charlie could teleport wherever she pleased in the whole damn world, it wouldn't do to be delaying this meeting for sentimental purposes. Rose knew the girl had arrived several hours earlier; she had made her reconnaissance; it was past time to make her move. Rose was antsy and irritated with the waste of time. She believed Charlie was ready, but her hesitation said otherwise and that grated against her pride.

Rose's swords felt comforting against her back. She was prepared in case Charlie proved too squeamish for the job, after all. But, then Rose didn't believe that would be the case - Charlie reminded her too much of herself in her youth. She would get the job done.

Finally, she made contact with her prey and Rose adjusted her earpiece to better hear Charlie's pitch to the girl.

"You have every reason to hate them." It was an abrupt opening - just Charlie's style, but the girl didn't sound as assured over the comm as Rose would have liked.. "Your 'sister' left you behind, abandoned you, forgot her vow to you. Because screwing Green Arrow was more important than her maternal vows."

Rose smiled. That was better - an excellent start - Charlie's bitterness was a powerful weapon - more powerful than even the girl realized. Rose savored honing that bitterness into the hatred it could become with the right kind of guidance. The kind she'd been providing these last few years.

"She sent me here to be safe." Charlie's quarry didn't sound convinced.

"That's what they all say. You aren't stupid enough to believe it, are you?"

That's right. Make sure she doubts that crap the heroes told her. Hell, Rose thought, doubt everything everyone tells you.

"Sister sent me here to be safe." The girl repeated the statement like it was some sacred mantra she'd learned in this monastery, but Rose knew that it wasn't true - the girl had been abandoned here, the same as they'd all been abandoned.

The girl continued, "I believed her, until the first raid happened. I had to defend myself and the others, after the woman holding me - protecting me like Sister never did - was killed."

She knew the girl didn't know they'd been behind that raid. Collateral damage was sometimes necessary after all - a lesson she had learned well at the knees of her father. Rose no longer shuddered and winced at the thought of Blüdhaven and how she had almost been a party to it. Now, she wondered if perhaps they could have accomplished more if she'd been whole - uncompromised by her father's chemical control or Dick Grayson's psychological manipulation.

Rose was so caught up in her reminiscence, she almost missed Charlie's audible sigh of relief. "I remember the sight of Miss Gordon's blood, too. After the Joker beat her, the blood was all over. Everywhere." Rose let loose a delighted laugh. That's right - remind her of your own sisterhood. Common ground was mighty.

"But Miss Gordon didn't love you. Any more than Sister did me. Why do you mourn her?" Her smile quickly turned to a frown. The girl would have to be disillusioned as to the notion of love having anything to do with anything else. In Rose's experience, there wasn't truly such a thing in the Multiverse.

"I don't. I simply want to make sure that what happened to us, never happens again."

 

Rose felt Cass's presence in the burrow before she saw her. The other woman nodded her head in acknowledgment, tapped her ear to indicate she'd been listening to the recruitment mission as well, then went back to unloading the supplies. Rose wasn't inclined to help and she leaned back to watch Cass complete her chore.

 

Cass lithely tossed Rose an apple, as they listened. Forbidden fruit, Rose remembered. Rose whipped out her knife to peal the apple as she watched. Cass squatted with a grace Rose envied, even with her enhanced senses.

 

Rose believed what she'd told Charlie - metas really were superior to the norms in every way - so, Rose dismissed her appreciation for Cass as indulgence, or slumming maybe. She didn't need to remind herself how humans were weak, always getting themselves killed or worse. Like her mother. Like Dick. Like Eddie. Like Cass was sure to do someday when she wasn't paying enough attention.

 

Rose jerked her knife around the delicate skin. Round and round it went and she'd lost track of the conversation.

 

"Then it sounds as if the mistake has already been repeated."

"No. We can teach them not to trust. Not to be so naive. Not to put all of their faith into heroes that don't deserve it, who will leave them."

Charlie was barely holding together on the other end of the comm, right when she was finally getting to the crux of the matter. Here's where she'd make or break getting this girl into their movement. They didn't need her, of course, but the more fodder for the canons, the better. Plus, Charlie really wanted this and Rose had invested quite a bit of time and energy into Charlie.

Cass glided down beside Rose on the snow covered ground. So graceful. Rose suppressed a sigh, as Cass reached over and took an apple slice from the blade of Rose's knife.

Charlie's recruit was speaking. "You say that the Titans did not ask you to become a member. How then do you propose to 'teach' them anything?"

"She's smart, at least. Some of her training is the same as my mother's." Cass slid the apple slice between her lips and bit down, breaking it into two. Rose already had this information, but she found herself nodding despite the redundancy.

"We teach them the same way the Titans have always learned best," Charlie repeated the words she had learned from Rose's own lips. "By fighting against them."

"Ah. We will be their villains, then?" the girl replied and Cass rolled her eyes.

"Okay, maybe not so smart then. She doesn't know we don't have to use their classifications."

Rose smirked at that observation. "Nope, we sure don't." She plucked a slice of apple from the core and fed it to Cass. Watched as her face transformed to concentrated bliss.

"... don't want me, and they won't have you - you're a killer. We don't have any other choice... " And Charlie was right, but really it wasn't about them. Not the Titans. Or the Outsiders. Or the Birds of Prey. Or any other stupid so-called-hero-family.

Rose had felt free when she finally realized she didn't need them. Any of them. She didn't need them to save her from her dad. Or her loneliness. Or her evil ways. She didn't need them at all. She'd had to do it all on her own anyway.

"Then you'll join me?"

"Yes... " Charlie's mission was a success. She'd arrive with their new recruit soon. Rose swatted Cass's thigh with a celebratory swat. Her girl had done good and Cass and Rose would now have another ex-patriot to train and enlighten.

Charlie's mission a success, Rose and Cass welcomed the new recruit to their midst less than twenty minutes later.

The girl walked into their lair with her head held high and introduced herself, "I am Sin."


End file.
